Falcons Rebound for 78-62 Win at Ohio

Thursday, January 30

Athens, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Ohio

January 30, 2014 | Women's Basketball

BG ends game on 27-4 run; Stein pulls down 18 boards

By: ATHENS, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Jill Stein at Ohio State - Scott Grau photo

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team held Ohio University without a field goal for the game's final seven minutes, rallying for a 78-62 win Thursday night (Jan. 26). The Mid-American Conference game was held at the Convocation Center.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Jennifer Roos

With the win, the Falcons improved to 17-3 overall and 7-1 in MAC play. The Bobcats dropped to 8-11 and 3-5, respectively.

BG was down by seven points, 58-51, with 9:20 to go, but the Falcons ended the game on a 27-4 run en route to the road win.

Senior Alexis Rogers led five Falcons in double digits in scoring, with a game-high 20 points. Fellow senior Jillian Halfhill had 16 points on the night, while junior Deborah Hoekstra had 14 off the bench. Senior Jill Stein had 12 points and sophomore Miriam Justinger 10 to round out the quintet.

Stein had a whopping total of 18 rebounds on the night, just two shy of Ohio's team total. The Falcons held a 37-20 advantage on the glass.

BGSU shot 55.8 percent from the field for the game, including a 14-of-24 (58.3%) performance in the second half. Despite shooting 52.5% in the opening period, the Brown and Orange fell behind by double digits, after holding a double-digit lead early in the game.

The Falcons scored on the first three possessions of the game, taking a 7-0 lead and prompting Ohio to use a timeout with exactly two minutes gone. Stein hit a foul-line jumper after a shot fake, and Halfhill was fouled on a three-point try, knocking down all three resulting free throws. BGSU went 23-of-25 from the stripe on Thursday night.

Stein then dished to redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan for a layup and a 7-0 lead. After the timeout, the Falcons increased the lead to 10-0 when Stein found Justinger for a left-side three-pointer.

The Bobcats got on the board on a Kiyanna Black triple -- each of Ohio's first four buckets came from beyond the arc -- but Halfhill drove down the lane, adjusted her shot in midair and banked the ball off glass for a 12-3 lead.

The Bobcats slowly battled back. After a Halfhill triple gave the Falcons a 17-9 lead, a Rogers steal resulted in Donovan's layup in transition, giving BG a 10-point advantage. But, Destini Cooper hit her second three-pointer, and her team's fourth of the game, with 11:01 left in the period.

The home side got within five points, with layups by Quiera Lampkins and Kat Yelle. But, a layup by Justinger and a jumper by Hoekstra gave the Brown and Orange a 23-16 lead.

Ohio responded by scoring 14-straight points, holding the Falcons scoreless for over four minutes. Lampkins scored the first five, with an 'and-one' layup, then a steal and layup, and Yelle's layup at the 6:14 mark tied the score at 23-23.

Yelle fed Black for another layup and a two-point Ohio lead, and Hannah Boesinger hit a pair of three-pointers within a span of 1:08. Junior Jasmine Matthews stopped BG's scoring drought with a layup, but Boesinger's second three gave the 'Cats a 33-25 lead with 3:23 left in the half.

After the final media timeout of the period, Black went down the lane for an easy layup and a 35-25 lead. The last six points of the half all came from Rogers, all at the free-throw line, cutting the Falcons' deficit to four points at the break.

Boesinger opened the second-half scoring with a triple, but Halfhill answered with a trey of her own. The 'Cats extended the lead to eight points, but moments later, layups by Rogers and Halfhill cut that margin in half, and BG trailed, 44-40.

Yamonie Jenkins answered with a layup and a foul, but her free throw was no good, and Rogers fed Justinger for a three-pointer from the left side.

Layups by Yelle and Stein kept it a three-point game, but Black doubled that Ohio advantage with a triple with 15:01 to go.

Back came the Falcons, however, as BG combined to make the 'extra' pass three times in a row. Three players, with a chance for a three-point try, each passed the ball to a teammate with a slightly better shot. The ball went around the arc from right to left, and wound up in the hands of Hoekstra in front of the Ohio band. The junior drilled a three-point try to cut the 'Cats' lead to 51-48 with 13:50 remaining.

Quickly, Ohio extended the lead back out to seven points, as Cooper put back her own miss and Jenkins scored on a drive. Stein answered with a tough jumper, and Rogers split a pair of charity tosses, making it a 55-51 game.

Lampkins' three-point play gave the hosts a seven-point lead with 9:20 to go, but that's when the Falcons began the 27-4 run to end the game.

That run began innocently enough, as Rogers drew a foul on Jenkins and hit two shots from the line with 9:06 on the clock. Stein was fouled by Baldwin and hit two shots, and after an Ohio miss, Hoekstra took a Halfhill pass and hit a three-point try from the right wing, tying the game with 8:10 left.

Rogers dished to a wide-open Stein for a 60-58 lead, before Baldwin hit a layup with 7:04 left. That shot tied the score, but would be Ohio's last successful field goal of the night.

Rogers knocked down a three-point shot from the top of the arc with 6:51 remaining, giving the Falcons the lead for good, and two Hoekstra tosses 28 seconds later made it a five-point game.

Justinger stole the ball from Black, firing the ball ahead to Halfhill for a layup, and two more Hoekstra free throws gave BG a 69-60 advantage with 5:26 to go. Baldwin drew her fifth foul on Hoekstra's drive that resulted in those free throws.

BG hit three more free throws before Black hit a pair of shots from the line with 3:50 remaining. But, those would prove to be Ohio's final points. The Falcons scored the game's final six points, with Hoekstra getting back to the stripe and hitting two shots, and Stein and Justinger hitting shots in the final two minutes to provide the final margin.

Rogers was 11-of-12 from the free-throw line on the night, while Hoekstra was a perfect 6-of-6. Rogers had seven rebounds and five assists in addition to her 20 points in the win.

Justinger was a perfect 4-of-4 from the floor, hitting a pair of shots from long distance. She also had four assists vs. the Bobcats.

Stein filled the stat sheet, with three assists and a game-high three blocked shots in addition to the 12 points and 18 boards. She was 5-of-7 from the field.

Halfhill, Justinger and Stein each played 39 minutes in the game, including all 20 minutes of the second half.

BG went 7-of-15 from three-point land, including a 5-of-8 effort in the second period. The 'Cats were 8-of-25 from long range for the game, but just 2-for-13 in the second period.

Black led a balanced Bobcat attack with 12 points, while Lampkins and Yelle scored 10 apiece and Boesinger nine. Cooper added eight points, Baldwin seven and Jenkins six. No Ohio player had more than four rebounds on the night.

BGSU returns to the road on Sunday (Feb. 2), making a short trip up I-75 to face the University of Toledo. Tipoff is set for 12:07 p.m. at Savage Arena.